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A Qantas plane - Source: ONE News -
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More passengers are flying on Qantas Airways Ltd's budget carrier Jetstar but numbers on the group's other carriers have fallen as the economic downturn impacts travel.
The group comprises Qantas Domestic, regional operator QantasLink, Jetstar Domestic, Qantas International and Jetstar International.
Qantas released on Tuesday preliminary figures showing passenger numbers for the group in November 2008 had fallen by 3.8% compared to November 2007.
Airlines have been finding recent market conditions extremely tough as global economic conditions soften the demand for travel.
The Qantas group carried 3,170,000 passengers in November 2008 compared to 3,294,000 in November 2007.
Qantas International experienced a fall of 8.4% in passenger numbers carried, to 623,000 in November 2008 from 680,000 in November 2007.
But Jetstar International had a rise of 5.6%, to 146,000 from 138,000.
Passenger numbers on Qantas Domestic fell 7.4% t to 1,368,000 from 1,478,000; QantasLink fell 8.3% to 355,000 from 387,000; but Jetstar Domestic lifted 11% to 678,000 from 611,000.
Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPKs) for the group dropped 5.2%, and Available Seat Kilometres (ASKs) were down 1.0%, resulting in a revenue seat factor of 78.3%, which was 3.4 percentage points lower than the prior year.
RPKs represent the number of paying passengers carried multiplied by the number of kilometres flown.
ASKs measure the number of seats multiplied by the number of kilometres flown.
Group passenger numbers for the financial year to November 2008 were down 0.7% from the prior year, to 16,397,000 from 16,520,000.
Again, passenger numbers on Jetstar were up whereas numbers on the other carriers in the group were down.
Jetstar International recorded a rise of 24.8% , and Jetstar Domestic rose 11.6%.
Qantas International was down 7.2%, Qantas Domestic fell 5.0%, and QantasLink dropped 0.7%.
RPKs fell 2.3%, but ASKs rose by 0.6%, resulting in a revenue seat factor of 79.6 % which was 2.4 percentage points lower than the prior year.
Total domestic (Qantas, QantasLink and Jetstar domestic operations) yield, excluding exchange, for the financial year to November 2008, was 2.2% lower, compared to the same period last year.
Total international (Qantas and Jetstar international operations) yield, excluding exchange, rose 4.9% compared with the same period in the prior year.
Qantas said it had recently increased hedging of its expected fuel requirements in 2009/2010 to 41%, at a worst-case crude oil price of $US98 per barrel.
In 2008/2009, Qantas has hedged 97% at a worst-case crude oil price of $US104 per barrel.
Qantas shares were eight cents lower at lower at $2.50 on Tuesday.
